Fast-Track Design of a Novel Clinical Waste Destruction Technology

该项目旨在加快新型移动微波诱导等离子体气化技术的测试、放大和设计过程，以提供灵活和额外的能力，从而能够安全和可持续地处置与新冠肺炎相关的医疗废物。据报道，在新冠肺炎感染率较高的地区(武汉部应急办公室/当前的美国食品和药物管理局废物行业调查对新冠肺炎的影响)，医疗废物的产生增加了600%，因此需要额外的废物处理能力，以服务于全球现有的医院和正在建立的新的临时医疗/保健设施(例如，NHS南丁格尔医院)，以防止与运输和处理受污染的废物流相关的疾病传播风险。MIP气化技术将为医疗保健信托基金和危险废物管理公司提供非现场焚烧的替代方案，使废物能够在现场安全和可持续地处理，同时降低与废物处理相关的成本(C.A.由于与电极腐蚀和高寄生负荷有关的操作问题，采用等离子气化系统销毁废物受到了阻碍，使得设施在大规模(1000吨/日)下才具有经济性。因此，该项目将专注于我们的高效模块化MIP气化技术的快速测试和扩大，以便能够在1000吨/年的规模下对新冠肺炎医疗废物进行现场管理。这项研究的成果将包括新的MIP手电筒技术(将获得专利)的设计和原型制作，新冠肺炎医疗废物销毁移动包装工厂的设计(将获得专利)，以及对该工厂的发电潜力的评估。预计这项研究的成果将促进进一步的资金筹集，以便将该技术商业化。启用新冠肺炎医疗废物的现场销毁，将为医疗信托基金和危险废物管理公司提供一个机会，以缓解与医疗废物处置相关的容量问题和安全问题，同时也使得有机会通过产生低碳能源来减少基于电网的电子问题的能源需求。因此，该项目为全球医疗保健行业提供了一种新的流程，以增强新冠肺炎医疗废物处理的安全性和可持续性，同时降低运营成本和碳排放。

This project seeks to fast-track the testing, scale-up and design of a novel mobile microwave induced plasma (MIP) gasification technology, to provide both flexible and additional capacity to enable the safe and sustainable disposal of COVID-19 related clinical waste. With clinical waste arisings being reported to have increased by 600% in regions of high COVID-19 infection rates (Wuhan Ministry Emergency Office/current Defra Survey of Waste Industry on COVID-19 Impacts), additional waste treatment capacity is required to serve existing hospitals and new temporary medical/healthcare facilities that are being erected globally (e.g. NHS Nightingale Hospitals) to prevent the risk of disease transmission, associated with the transportation and handling of contaminated waste streams. The MIP gasification technology will provide healthcare trusts and hazardous waste management companies with an alternative to offsite incineration, enabling waste to be treated safely and sustainably onsite, whilst reducing the costs associated with waste disposal (c.a. £600 - £1,500 per tonne) and energy demand through the provision of renewable energy.The adoption of plasma gasification systems for waste destruction has been hindered due to operational issues relating to electrode corrosion and high parasitic loads, rendering facilities only economic at a large scale (1000 tpd). As such conventional systems are uneconomic for onsite deployment for the treatment of clinical waste.Therefore, this project will focus on the rapid testing and scale-up of our highly efficient modular MIP gasification technology to enable viable onsite management of COVID-19 clinical waste at a scale of 1000 tpa. The outputs from the study will comprise design and prototyping of a new MIP torch technology (which will be patented) and the design of a mobile package plant for COVID-19 clinical waste destruction (which will be patented), and an assessment of the energy generation potential of the plant. It is anticipated that the outputs from this study will facilitate further fundraising in order to commercialise the technology.Enabling the destruction of COVID-19 clinical waste onsite, will present both healthcare trusts and hazardous waste management companies with an opportunity to alleviate capacity issues and safety issues relating to the disposal of clinical waste, whilst also enabling an opportunity to reduce grid-based eissues nergy demand through the generation of low-carbon energy. As such this project presents the global health care sector with a novel process to enhance the safety and sustainability of COVID-19 clinical waste disposal whilst reducing operational costs and carbon emissions.